Well if I had had thoughts of re-reading War and Peace, tackling Proust or Dostoevsky (not that I had). this year well and truly knocked the stuffing out of all reading plans. Not that I make any really. I tend to lurch around and read whatever takes my fancy at the time. Years ago when I started this blog I used to make copious reading lists a la Emma Woodhouse which I never stuck to. I also used to go in for Challenges set by other bloggers and then panic when I did not meet the deadline. Then the light dawned. Sod it I thought. Just read what you want – you are never going to be asked by the Guardian to nominate your books of the year or sit on the panel of the Booker so why bother?
And if ever that philosophy was needed in a Year of Reading it was certainly 2020. Suddenly we all had the time we wanted to read (ok yes I know a lot of you were working from home and trying to teach recalcitrant children so no need to write and tell me, I fully understand) but my mind kind of froze and went into hibernation. I was too busy working out if I was allowed to go out and feed the ducks or fill the car up with petrol to consult my library.
So in the end I found myself re-reading. I think this was a comfort thing. I did not want any suprises, gawd knows we were getting enough of them on the daily news, I just wanted to know where I was and so after checking my book list this year I find a lot of familiar names there. So here goes of my summing up of the Year of the Plague:
Josephine Tey. I re-read the Franchise Affair for the for the umpteenth time and loved it for the umpteenth time. My post on this book is here. I also found the film, positively ancient now, with Michael Dennison and Dulice Gray on Talking Pictures tv channel (which is a total joy by the way) and watched it after a long gap. Gosh those cut glass Engish vowels. Wonderful. Then I located the later version, made in the 80's with Patrick Malahide, on Youtube and watched that. Again, wonderful and a superb sense of time and place.
I then went on to reread The Man in the Queue, The Singing Sands, Brat Farrar and Miss Pym Disposes. A joy and her writing is peerless.
PD James – I started a re-read, still ongoing, of all the Dalgliesh books and loved them all over again. I wrote in her praise here. A new tv series is due I gather. I am already fearful 
of what it is going to be like….
D E Stevenson – Oh how I used to turn my nose up at these books when I worked in a library yonks ago. Little old ladies borrowed them "such nice books" and I turned my nose up. Eighteen years old and full of myself. Well, now I love them all and have read them all. Yes, every single one. Dean Street Press, one of my favourite publishers, reprinted a lot and those lovely peeps sent me several free ebooks of this author when lockdown started as they thought I might need cheering up. I mean, how to win Friends and Influence people – that is the way to go. Persephone books also republished the Miss Buncle Books and I re-read those too.
E H Young – a lot of these on my shelves, most in the old Green Virago editions which I adore. The British Library have started publishing Women authors who mays have been forgotten, and they sent me Chatterton Square which now sits alongside the Virago edition. Dean Street Press reissued Miss Mole, a simply wonderful witty and quietly heartbreaking book, and Virago brought out another edition later on in the year so suddenly E H Young was everywhere. Not complaining.
Agatha Christie – ah Dear Dame A. Always there, always excellent and I refute the notion that some critics have that she is a poor writer and her characters are cardboard. They are NOT and that is all there is to it. This year I re-read They Came to Baghdad, Destination Unknown, two of her stand alone books and I think terrific reads; Ordeal by Innocence, Towards Zero, Crooked House, the Man in the Brown Suit and quite a few others.
I read a superb book later on in the year by Mark Aldridge on Hercule Poirot which I will mention later, probably in another post as it is clear I am on a long ramble.
Jane Austen – I came across an article the other day in the newspaper suggesting that she was the perfect author to read in the middle of lockdown and I agree. There is something so reassuring and comforting in reading her sharp, witty prose, her precision and her wit that boosted me tremendously. I read Persuasion. I have lost count of how many times I have read this particular title but it never fails to grab me and keep me reading to see what happens, though I know what happens. Forget Darcy. Give me Captain Wentworth any day….
I am stopping for the moment and will be back again with the next tranche in the next day or so. I have till the end of the year but thought I had better start now.
Glad I did.
Leave a Reply